Her inhale is a tremor. “Ash…”
“Say the word,” I murmur. “Just one. And I won’t hold back.”
She closes her eyes.
For a heartbeat, she looks like she might say it.
Then, Holly’s voice carries from outside. “UNCLE ASH! ARE YOU DONE HELPING MISS LUCY?”
We both freeze. Lucy’s eyes fly open.
I step back like I’ve been doused with cold water. “Yeah, kiddo,” I call out, voice cracked, “coming.”
Lucy presses a hand to her chest like she’s steadying her heart and then we walk out together, both pretending nothing happened. Holly runs over and grabs Lucy’s hand. “Can she come for cookies?”
Lucy looks at me. And for once, I don’t hide anything — not the want, not the fear, not the edge that’s been wearing itself into me since the minute she arrived in this town. She blushes.
“Sure,” I hear myself say, “she can come.”
Lucy swallows.
And even though nothing happened…
Everything did.
Chapter Fourteen
Lucy
The storm rolls in so fast it’s like someone flipped a switch. Ten minutes ago the snow was pretty—storybook flakes drifting lazily across the pines. Now it’s slamming sideways against my cabin windows like the mountain is shaking itself out.
The power flickers.
Once.
Twice.
Then dies.
Everything goes black.
I stand in the middle of my living room wrapped in a blanket, listening to the wind roar like it’s trying to tear the damn cabin off its foundation. My breath comes out in little white puffs.
“Okay,” I mutter, pulling out my phone to use the flashlight. “Not ideal. But we can improvise.”
Except my phone is at 9%.
I rummage around for the emergency headlamp I saw the day I moved in, and after tripping over a box of ornaments I still haven’t unpacked, I find it.
Headlamp: on. Phone: plugged into a portable charger. Socks: thick, fuzzy, and a humiliation I wouldn’t survive if certain grumpy neighbors saw them. The wind howls harder. The cabin groans. And then a pounding knock rattles the door.
I whirl so fast the headlamp flashes across the walls like a strobe light.
“Lucy!”
Ash’s voice. Deep. Rough. Cutting through the storm like a blade.
My heart leaps straight into my throat.
